Work

Engaging With You Because I am Amused by You: A Multi-Method Approach Exploring the Effect of Frontline Employee Humor on Customer Service Engagement

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Motivating customers to proactively engage in service with frontline employees (FLEs) is essential for contemporary hospitality organizations. Existing literature has well documented that customer service engagement is associated with a wide range of desirable outcomes. However, there is limited knowledge about the interpersonal-related antecedents of customer service engagement. Drawing on social exchange theory, this research develops an interpersonal-based model to explore why, how , and when FLE humor facilitate customer service engagement. This research employed a scenario-based experiment and a multi-source field survey, sampling 294 participants via a Chinese online survey platform and 611 FLE-customer dyads in two Chinese scenic spots, respectively. Results reveal that FLE humor has a positive impact on customer service engagement, and customer relational energy mediates this relationship. In addition, customers with stronger sensitivity to interpersonal treatment will generate more relational energy. Our multi-method research extends customer engagement literature by explicitly examining one critical interpersonal-based antecedent and the corresponding reciprocal process.

Source: SAGE Open

DOI: 10.1177/21582440251403916

Authors: Donghua Xiao, Yuxin Ni, Tianran Yang, Xiuwen Zhao, Jincen Xiao

Institution: Xihua University

Language: English

Topic: Customer Service Quality and Loyalty

Subfield: Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management

Field: Business, Management and Accounting

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $1,600

Funders: Department of Science and Technology of Sichuan Province, Chengdu Science and Technology Bureau